Keep Watching The Stars

Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, 3/5/09.

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple
short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, clean, shivering, startling, and graceful." Boy, no pressure there.

Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mindboggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute
that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air,
and don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken.

Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a
million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in the coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn't afford to send any recruiters to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets,
ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. Forget that this task of planet saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same:
If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are
working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are
ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

The poet Adrienne Rich wrote:
"So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world."

There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. It works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people. Its clout resides in ideas, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving
Christians, street musicians, President of the USA and as David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, re-imagine, and
reconsider.

"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific 18th century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to
defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.

Conservatives ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant!!! We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet.

At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it! In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."

So I have two questions for you all:
First can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end.
Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside
you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television!

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation.

You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They
didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to
be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

Paul Hawken is a renowned visionary environmental activist, author of many books, most recently "Blessed Unrest" http://www.paulhawken.com/

Hoop Teacher Journey August 09

Hoopn Dentata

Tonight I walked into my local Quicki-Mart rounding up a few choklat treats for dessert when somebody said from behind - "You're the hulahoop girl aren't you?" It was an interesting moment and there was a pregnant pause for sure. Part of me wanted to really disappear right then and there or at the very least be able to deny it and simply be some anonymous chick buying choklat on a Sunday night looking perhaps a tad wrecked from a hyperactive weekend of no particular description. There was no defense within me, I admitted the truth with a smile, humility and eternal gratitude for this role that I have conjured but which seems to have overtaken my life... and I got out of that Quicki-Mart back to my clifftop cave as quickly as possible! Why? Because the gaps are too few, hooping has fully consumed my all and has taken me to some pretty challenging spaces recently. You wouldn't imagine it with all the love and the light that is THE HOOP. It's fun yeh, always has been always will be. What I find most fascinating in this particular story is the formation of a pattern - this was not the not the first time I have noted the overdose factor and it seems to spin into my awareness around about the time of the teacher training weekends, which at this stage are a biannual occurrence. Is it a seasonal crescendo in the hoop schedule or is it that this is the perfect opportunity to step back and observe? A little bit of this and a whole lotta that... Bring on the witness.

Is a name change of the name change the first step?

Tonight I considered putting on weight. For the shape more than anything.

My paradigms are shifting I can feel it on a cellular level.

On the weekend I ate olives. I will admit it now. And I enjoyed them (kinda). Don't tell The Scorpion!

Change. A self confessed Transformer / Shape Shifter.

Some reflections on the Hoop Teacher Journey:

We questioned - what's with this addiction to the hoop anyway?

It's circular and so reflects life. It's versatile - you can take it anywhere. It's fun and childlike what's not to love about that. It's ability to facilitate movement - physical, emotional and energetic - and release is second to none. Well maybe dancing... but hoopdancing takes dance to another level. It's about circular and spiral dynamics.

Spinning into a four hoop split. Naming it, activating it, feeling it, knowing it as nothing else but microcosmic bliss. Watching Jo, Asha and Julez all go there on the 4 too... just WOW. It's magickal. It's really difficult to describe the feeling of a 4 in spin. It's different to a 4 circus style. Circus hooping is beautiful, it's elegant and graceful and very controlled... but it doesn't take me to the zone I crave to be in which is about full movement, powerful propelling, a wild energy that is both explosive and contained and that allows you to just SPIN in a vortex that seems so connected to all that is. 4 splits are my new favourite. I have had my eye on them to take to the States at the end of September. Consider them packed. Now for the acquisition. WILD Kickups (thank you Blaze for putting me onto those cowboy style lifts!) or bust.

Did I just change my tune?

This is the problem. What happened is this - Deanne dreams I am in a prison and yes I see it and feel it. I am IN THE HOOP. Locked in Love with The Hoop. There is no escape. So, the planning for this year's desert trip started around May. There was very little else but planning for the instructional video, training for the video (which thankfully included a whole lot of yoga - i.e significant respite), a bunch of hoop classes along the way, some gigs, traveling to Central Australia to shoot the video in the desert (my choice), busting some balls to make it happen, returning for a short breath before diving into editing the video ... I guess I'm up to at least 4 months of intense focus and then the final shoot this past Friday night at a seaside clifftop. The final daze were upon us but so were technical difficulties and hormonal interception, burnout, fadeout, wipeout. There was simply no energy left in me. NONE. But wait, there was no time for that because the very next day I had to get up at 5.30am to pack for the teacher training weekend down at the stunning Govinda Valley Spiritual Retreat in the National Park south of Sydney. Hm... putting the pieces together. Add to that the decision to kick a newly acquired coffee addiction (discovered in the epic mission that was the desert) and an oncoming Lady in Red moon cycle... time to download and reboot the system.

This time there were 8 of us. The Power of 8:

"8 is the number of POWER. It teaches us that power, in any form, cannot be maintained without BALANCE, and that balance cannot hold without ACCURATE UNDERSTANDING. 8 is associated with money, business, competition, and the incorporation of anything that is useful to it. It is widely believed that those are the principle means of gaining personal power in the world. The belief that ‘money is power’ sprang from this rather shortsighted point of view." Creative Numerology

Juie, Jo, Lisa, Mark, Satya, Danie, Asha and Me.

It was DIVINE.

As the firestorm that was the end of last week hurtled and hit I kept reminding myself, this weekend is going to be fun. It's going to be relaxing and amazing and beautiful and exactly what we all need. And it was.

The level of information and energy that facilitating such a program requires is usually so overwhelming and exhausting that most times I leave with a headache. So given all previously said conditions it was not surprising that one did in fact threaten to surface for almost a full day or more but... for the first time in as long as I can remember I managed to subdue it without painkillers and simply by going to bed as early as possible, sleeping for as long as possible and waking up for some delicious yoga and meditation on the lawn in honour of the sun and my body that is my temple. Interestingly enough, half of us were also were on the moon and painkillers were being shared around. It was a weekend of movement and release. As I was stretching out my body and sitting in stillness in the morning I felt just how energetically powerful that space is. I intend on returning. There is a level of clarity and dynamism in that valley that must be soaked up and explored further. Not to mention the ampitheatre...

7 women and one man. He anchored us all...

Bless Mark! What an amazing spirit. His energy is just so electric and yet Zen at the same time. Capricorn / Aquarius mix. Wired for sound? Wired for ground control on the hoop. Mark interprets the circle with such a distinctly unique presence. Such a gentle spirit yet solid in his determination and focus. Awesome laugh and beautiful smile. I often find myself watching for the wonderful surprises that this hoopi has to offer. Keep us guessing Mark!

JoJoMo - the triple horned Goddess. So beautiful! Those eyes and another noteworthy smile. I found myself following her around somewhat unconsciously if only to be within her peripheral space. I don't know what it was! Energetic? Pheremonal? Was she doing the same? She harnesses an energy that I truly admire - grounded focus and clarity. Practical and daring. That raised eyebrow, sharp wit and sparkle in the eye. Born to be a star. Thrill seeking hoop moves.

Jewelz - meOW! WOW! Imagine your favourite cat just turned human and realised it could talk! The level of conversation often astounds me. This girl loves to engage and play and intrigue. Those random fiery curls and awesome short shorts. I always take time to admire her considered choice of rokn outfits. And that offering in our closing hoop jam! I don't think i've ever seen anything quite like it. Truly captivating. Possibly the most graceful and explorative hoopdance I have ever seen.

Lisa - one of the three Capricorns in the house. Solid. Hilarious. Powerful teacher. Strong woman. Beautiful energy. So open to it all and then some... she took it beyond my limits, which is something that both bamboozles and yet totally intrigues. Lisa has an incredible sense of innovation with her moves and draws you in with the complexity and the magic. There are some tricks that are best watched rather than learned as I discovered today (nobody mention the Bunny tantrum OK!)

Danie - what an awesome teacher! Total natural. Wit, style, confidence, cuteness, dramatic edge. She has got the full package. I love Danie's directness and her ability to take the challenge on if only to tick off on the elaborate to do list but oh so much more. Stand up comedy? If you are lucky. A fine example of how most Geminis are actually Taureans (sidereal note). But there's so much more beneath that surface. I am loving coming to know more of Danie. Is this a more is more situation? I think it might be.

Asha - the hulahoop slasher? Too sweet for that kinda nastiness... Or is she? Another Capricorn. That lady is stylish. I dig her vibe. Straight to the point, stunning visage, incredible moves (around the body foot pass!), a sprite-filled spirit, hint of Sagitarrian mystique, another stunning laugh and smile, instant rapport with that girl. The connection with the 80s and museums and academia and kids. People who love teaching children win a place in my heart. It says to me their inner child is alive and happy and their outer adult is happy to guide the inner children of children themselves with the power of the hoop. But don't step on her toes OK! Shhhh!!

Satya - another WOW. What an energy. Beautiful ink on her skin. Big heart. HOT dance moves. Lyrical body movements. Gypsy lady of the South. Aquarius / Pisces energy. Mystical. Poetic. Eyes as deep as the ocean. It's been a long time coming this connection I can feel it already but finally we have hit the page of pages in the Open Book of Opening Your Heart to the Hoop. Reveal what you care to with the knowledge that you will be heard and received with unconditional love and absolute awe of your beauty. A channelled message.

Bunny Star - I am graceful, spicy, juicy, vibrant, intense and multidimensional.

I am surrounded by so many incredible beings who share the same light filled passion and want to connect at that centre. In doing so we choose to overcome our sorrows and shift focus to feelings of joy. We love to dance, spin our hoops, transform energy and perception of life, dress in colourful costumes, add major sparkle to life and laugh a lot. We laughed a lot this weekend. We explored our feelings. We shared something really special that went beyond understanding how to teach and execute certain tricks or what makes a hoop business tick... we shared our unique essence and made a collective energetic shape that included circles, stars, triangles and a pear shaped fruit of the Goddess. It was and is an offering to the Greater Being that is Gaia's Harmonic Universe

Depth Perception

Projection versus Connection, an interesting conundrum. Isn't it amazing how different people view same situations with different eyes. I believe (and hope) we all have the ability to see from many different perspectives. To do this we must set ourselves free from our individual and collective Egos. The Mind - A martyr A master A monkey A slave. The hologram - something to view from the outside within a space of freedom and the ability to see it all ... or as much as we perceive to be the limit.

I can project a certain image situation feeling or thought onto a white wall and it will appear clear but the moment I project it onto a person it will be difficult to see and confusing because there are too many colours and patterns intertwined. I prefer a clear image always.

I can connect with a sentient being but I can't connect with a wall. The choice is obvious.

This leads me to question what this word connection really means or is and why it should mean anything at all. To me it means a touching of energies or spirits which may or may not be exchanged in various forms within the self and with others although often masked as exclusively with others. Ultimately it ignites alchemical sparks which are wondrous mysterious cosmically aligned exceptional to the mundane and the reason why we even exist to ponder ourselves and life. How divine to watch creation on such a micro-energetic level and imagine how that might refract out into the expansive Universe that is. The question is, how magical do you want to make this experience?

The thing that frustrates me about humans is we make everything so complicated when in fact its all very simple.

Do you know how to (be) love?

Where's the mirror?


The Brilliance That is You - a mantra

The Brilliance That is You

Say it to your mirror See it beyond the ego Hear it in your soul

The Brilliance That is You

Until you own it those clouds are gonna keep on blowing over causing all kinds of havoc with the Bling shoot extraordinaire

That is your life

Or is that my life?

I get confused too many mirrors...

Doesn't everyone live in Bling? If they don't they should. There's that word again... should hmmm

The brilliance that is you. Know it. Work it. Own it. It's the only way. Without ego. With self love.


The Essence of Time - a delineation is required between circular and linear paradigms with depth perception as a distinguishing feature as is spiral dynamics. How much time do you have on your hands indeed. What do you carry? Can you put it down? Really put it down. Maybe take a good long look at it, identify it, wrap it up, tie a pretty bow and burn it until it is nothing but ashes to be swept and disposed of. For most people this is their body anchored in the lower chakras and weighed down by the consumption of death energy (meat), an obsession with sex and the heavy density consciousness that comes with being bound in the third dimensional material world and the consensus reality that I think therefore I am. For most people time is about A>Z. Then there are those who actively seek Days out of Time and the moments within moments within moments again that keep amplifying the BLISS that it is to be alive and shedding seasonly allowing wings to spread for some light hearted flight time.

My heart is not heavy and I refuse to eat death. I live in the light and let the dark dissolve as I see it, usually in a pool of tears in the shower where it all gets washed away leaving me feeling refreshed and ready to connect with the Sun energy again. It bathes me back into brilliance and I am free.

Create Your Own Reality

Create Your Own Karma

No one can tell you what you are or are not, what is right or wrong, who you should and shouldn't be... but you. Be careful what you tell yourself.

Create Your Own Reality

Create Your Own Karma

You can keep dragging around those old heavy bags full of photo album memories that you may or may not even fully remember but complexly have a sense of ... or you can get rid of them once and for all. They serve no purpose but to remind you to go forward and don't turn back. Why let them shackle you? Why give that power to the past which is nothing but a chapter that you have already read? Or did you not read it? If it makes you feel safe and familiar then you better change the way you think because time's are changing and it's time to meet your higher self fully truthfully honestly courageously happily in the mirror that is other beings human and otherwise. An 11:11 interception. Now THAT is a beautiful thing.

This is your destiny.

Open your heart and breathe.

Life is yours to enjoy.

Much love and starz

x0x

Post Desert Epiphany # 4

Beauty simply IS love is not an addiction EVERYTHING is positive BLISS outweighs trauma each and every time inside the CIRCLE we stand ready to activate LIGHT CONSCIOUSNESS

Post Desert Epiphany # 3

The Rainbow Warrior is within us all

Post Desert Epiphany # 2

Space babes need SPACE

Post Desert Epiphany # 1

The desert the des(s)ert the lushness that IS the centre of this country the centre of the circle the intensity the breath THE STARZ that are so abundant out there where few dare to tread the sand and mounds of rock the NRG colour vibrant red yellow white light to dark night skies so beautiful more entrancing than life itself the shooting stars and winding galactic view im inluv with it all even the dark especially as it sets off the light lets the starz shine through winds me up to catapult through space hurtling bracing for bone breaking crash only to safely roll but crash all the same after the jetpacked tumble and twist thankfully after but it had to happen for what are we if not fault lined humans ready to crack at any moment like the earth holding it together until the pressure becomes just too much and surrender is the only option with a realisation that as we gaze upon the shattered mirror slash hologram that we collectively are we are nothing without each other except the illusion of what we wear to conceal universal essence. i choose bling.

Wrapping it UP with LOVE from StarLand

WINTER is here in Sydney. It's COLD! There was a day when I thought it was going to snow... in Sydney. THAT will be the day when we know the Earth does shake. In the meantime I am driving around bubble wrapping the leaks in the spaceship, trying to find a gap to send it into the intergalactic mechanic, finishing up Term 2 classes, moving out of StarLand, trying not to freak out about impending wisdom tooth extraction (anchoring into the now and warrior-esque fearlessness) and preparing for the desert...

GYPSYDOM - I'm looking for a studio space to work / live in... I mostly work so that's the focus... one just appeared! As in RIGHT NOW. In Darlo. Perfect. It's available tomoro. I want it. The view on the horizon broadens as I notice and acknowledge a stirring in the soul which adjusts the pre-perceived view of the hologram. Never let your head tell you how it IS until you've checked in with your cellular and soul-powered intelligence - it will keep you spinning in circles rather than spiraling through the hologram... Cut to yoga class yesterday - rolling the head from side to side then spiraling it back to centre > now there's an analogy.

YOGA - every day for 14 days ... on day 3 today ... then a week's break for surgery ... then every day for the following 14 days ... then the desert. Yoga just gets better every time. This morning I woke up at 6, had a 15 minute sleep in, slipped into my gear, ran through the rain in the dark along the clifftops and bounced into class. There is something quite incredible about pre-sunrise yoga. As in, really! I have to recommend it. In the past before my being was programmed to WANT it, which you need to get there... all I could think about when waking up at that time was need more sleep. Probably had a food / alcohol hangover too - i.e heavy density. Now that my entire being knows that blissful experience, it craves it - change script to can't wait to experience that feeling. Ditch the hangover, lighten the food, bed earlier to make sure it happens. Life changing. Life affirming. Calming. Bliss.

MEDITATION - Day 6: shooting stars behind my eyes + purple balls of light; Day 7 - purple + yellow balls of light

DIET - mostly raw (probably about 90%). Juices + smoothies + salads. Steamed vegetables. As much brocoli as possible - juiced, steamed, souped bring it on! Any superfoods that come my way are more than welcome... as is seaweed. I'm learning not to be so extreme in most areas of life and food is one of them, so is alcohol. The reality is when you clean up your diet and eat healthily, you can't partake in any more than the body can tolerate right in that moment because the whole bio-energetic system just becomes so sensitive. Having said that, there's nothing quite like a really beautiful glass of good quality rouge on a cold winter's night. I find it weird how alcohol and other drugs are seen as the big baddies in the world of gastronomic / mental badness, which in essence they are... but i'm going to slide another prime villain up the list here - SUGAR! My biggest downfall used to be chocolate - but since discovering Loving Earth chocolate which has Agave Syrup in it instead of sugar and a few other awesome ingredients like raw cacao, goji's, activated almonds and total yumness ... my attitude to the world of chocolate has changed. There really are so many different levels of quality with chocolate and the other delicacies we choose to treat ourselves with in life - some of it in small gourmet portions is really good for you! At an occasional 3 glass limit (that's a wild night these days... more like 1-2)... it feels really under control. I drink maybe once a fortnight, altho with all that is on right now I don't have the time, inclination or energy to really go there unless it seems festively appropriate...

STARLAND - What a magickal place that IS. I went there with the intention to retreat from the city, work creatively and freely, transform my cellular intelligence and simply be in a space to BE. So many beautiful people shared StarLandia and, as Summer passed, the opportunity to explore solitude appeared which I now crave more than ever. It's important to spend time alone, particularly if you are in a relationship or used to being around so many people. When you do, dark caves appear dotted with staligtites of consciousness from which to peer through. They show you life on the inside - reflections of what exists in the outer world... a space that is usually congested with activity and people. I went to StarLand to write, with the initial focus being my book. I left with a script for an instructional DVD... which for the most part was not written on the southerly shores but in North Sydney - a gust of inspiration perhaps? I think in a lot of ways I went to StarLand to let go - I feel like I have accomplished that. What is simply IS and all I can do is shape-shift around this and make my influence felt where appropriate and of compliment to all else.

'"DROPPING YOUR STORY LINE" is, first, a way to notice the suffering that has come with attachment to your story about what has happened and what is going to happen. Then, through what Buddhists call, "skilful means", it is possible to learn how to drop your story line from the past and future, to let go of the constricting identity of yourself as "the sufferer", and to come into the freedom of the present moment. Through dropping the story line you may discover a surprising freedom. As one Buddhist teacher puts it, "We take things very personally. The more tightly we hold self, the more problem. No self, well... no problem! Though Buddhist communities have their problems, because they have contemplative methods for observing and releasing the suffering that comes with certain stories, they have much to teach Christian communities about how to metabolise both personal and communal conflict." Gordon Peerman, 'Blessed Relief'

NUMBER 5 aka The Precise Execution and Successful Completion of Intricate Plans aka THE FIFTH HOOP = SPIRIT... A hoop that came from a medicinal meditation - a creative space in which to loosen up and explore colour, craft, shape, pattern, repetition, creativity, contemplation, newness, calmness, complexity and divine beauty as a result. It has inspired much more than the art of making hoops and the ability to create something of significant size and detail - I am seeing costumes for the desert...

THE DESERT - a breath before proceeding. ALWAYS a drawcard! What is it about deserts? The blank canvas cosmo-sphere... the emptiness and yet fullness... a place where spirits live and dream... for us here in Australia - the centre of our circle. It's my favourite place on this planet - the Australian desert. It's red, it's intense, magickal, powerful and truly breathtaking - it feels like my home.

The World of the Fifth Hoop

It is believed that we are moving into a new dimension, time, age, reality. Many talk of the 5th Dimension as part of the Earth's Ascension and the raising of human consciousness with 11:11 and 2011 being two prominent elements of the current experience . Then there's the circularity of time, the precession of the equinoxes, the Age of Aquarius, the Sidereal calendar, the option to view life through a non-linear filter and instead understand depth perception right here in the now. Awakened presence. Then there's the 5th Hoop...

The Four Sacred Stone Tablets - Hopi & Tibetan Prophecy
An Address by Larry Merculieff to the Aleut Elders in Alaska
2005 05 02

"They say that moving into this time, of the World of the 5th Hoop, is a time when all the four sacred powers are going to be reconnected. They are the red-white-black-yellow...

The Hopi word for love is the Tibetan word for hate. And the Tibetan word for love is the Hopi word for hate. The same word, but exactly opposite meanings. They say that this is necessary to help keep the balance of Mother Earth...

We will awaken our Spirits again. When that happens, things will be revealed of the old wisdoms. Things that have been forgotten for a long time are going to be brought back – art, music, song, dance, storytelling, spiritual wisdom, knowledge - and the wisdom of how to work with Mother Earth will all be restored...

The signs of this time of healing, that is to start, are: • When the children bring back the Spirit, to the village. • When the young start speaking with the wisdom of the elders. • When the leadership energies start shifting to the feminine side. • When this hoop of the 100 eagle feathers gets completed. And when the White Bison shows up. These are all the signs of the movement - from the Fourth to the Fifth Hoop...

The world, for the last 4,000 or so years, has been stuck in the male energy side. The male energy is thinking from the brain. It is a management from the top down. It is more aggressive. It does not use intuition or feelings from the heart. It is a different kind of energy. It is not a bad energy. It is just different, than the female energy. Female energy is healing, nurturing, loving, caring, touching, sharing and that the world spiritual leaders know, now, that these energies have been male and now have shifted to the female side...

If we have fears, we are projecting them into the future - into a future time, that does not even exist. If we have guilt, we are living in the past, for the past things we did. We are not living now. All the spiritual keepers of all groups in the world - be they Buddhists, be they Islamic, be it part Red Pack, be it medicine pack, you name it - say (that) the only way to find the power that has been given to us from the Creator, is to be here, now - not to escape...

The spiritual keepers also say that the first step towards healing yourself, before you can heal others or help heal others, is to love that which we may hate or who may hate me. We may hate ourselves. We may hate an organization. We may hate the people from outside who have interfered. We may hate somebody. The first step towards this healing is to stop the hate and turn it into love and it will transform everything. This spiritual sickness that we have is going to move now. It is going to change. There are some predictions in the sacred stone tablets, among the wisdom-keepers, about what is going to happen, here in this World of the Fifth Hoop.

Not only are we going to have this healing, but the Earth Mother is going to shake in a way that it has never shook before. It is going to move in a way it has never done before. There is going to be a lot of fear because of this and the wisdom keepers want me to convey that, when this happens, we should not be afraid. Because what is happening is that the Earth Mother is trying to help us remove the stuff that we have stuck in our bodies - inherited from the spiritual sickness of generations and generations out. And one of the ways that we do that is to scare the life out of us. This is why there is going to be time for healers. Healers are being called from all over. Women are now taking their place as the original healers around the world and some of the strongest original healers are starting here in Alaska. Not only (will there be) the shift to the feminine side of leadership, but the women are going to start taking their place as healers. I think this is an exciting time.

What is wrong is we were looking outside, for feeding for a hunger inside - a hunger that we did not understand - and that hunger is the hunger of the Spirit. When we have addictions, it is a hunger, to fill the Spirit. It is like a big stomach, inside you, that wants to feed all of the time and no matter how much we feed it, with these addictions, (it) is never enough. And it just goes down and down and we get so depressed that, we feel we cannot get out of it. At that point, you die either physically or your die spiritually. Hopefully, many people will not have to go through that. So, that is the message that I have brought to you. This is a message of hope - a message of good wisdom. Remember, our cultures are not lost. The wisdom of it is already here, with us. We just do not know it yet, because we are spiritually sleeping."

http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/05may/4sacredstonetablets.html

Day 30 Stream

Love to all living creatures on this planet!
Pluto square Pluto Moon 1st / 2nd houses
Self identity and personal values
Shared values versus different pathways
Direct communication + compassion
Compassion
Self Love



Compassionate Eating
For animals, planet and person
Critical Mass of the Number of Vegetarians Reached



Alignment with like-minded peeps
Lovers of life
HOOP LOVERS
Lovers of love
LOVE!



Playing
Laughing



LIVING
Dreaming
Dancing
Spinning
LIFE



Namaste

Dreamz

Monday
In Melbourne(ish) at an event where i meet a group of new peeps a funky crew maybe i am in that back alleyway next to my nanna's house that i have visited many times in my dreams. the crew are kinda funky kinda feral in a gypsy free spirit saj way. we are at a swimming carnival where i leap into the water and swim super fast win the race jump out back with the crew. they are wondering where they are going to go to next so i suggest they come and live with me at starland. after suggesting it i realise i have just filled up my house w people i barely know at which point it occurs to me that we are all aligned creatively so its all good. one in particular is very HOT. drawcard...

Tuesday
At hoopcamp hooping it with safire trying to find the right hoops realising that i have given away or sold some of my favourite hoops running around trying to find the right ones as i wanna hoop with her! head upstairs where everyone is staying we are in the desert in a forest on a journey lotsa people. a guy is in the bedroom where my hoops are so i sneak in grab the hoops and run via a rendezvous in the bed with him! he seems confused by my hit and run manner. no time to lose. wake up to email from hoop camp heather... this happened last year. the signs are all there!

Wednesday
In San Francisco with Deanne and Christabel. Christabel is driving Deanne and I around enroute to Hoop Camp. I'm aware of how odd the Australian accent sounds in America. We stop off at a gathering in a park. Pass a diner on the way where people are eating dodgy food. Exit quickly. Walk over to the circle of people in the park where Christabel is filming the event as a favour to a friend and a creative chill space of her own. A tiger crawls up next to me and playfully bites my arm. I shake it off but think it's cute all the same. Christabel mentions that I should be cautious because such "playfulness" usually means it wants to eat me and it will chase me if I don't be careful. I run off to a building and close the door knowing the tiger is after me. I hold the door tight but the tiger is intent on getting in and pushes hard against the door. I wake up.

Hoop Invasion @ Customs House

Featuring BunnyHoopStar and DD Hoop Love

5 RULES OF LIFE

1. Take full responsiblity for your own happiness
2. Tame the mind
3. Chase happy + positive thoughts until you walk with them hand in hand
4. Treat others with the love kindness and compassion that you would your own child
5. Enjoy every day in the moment in the now

Streams of Dreams and Storms

Anticipation is building, a crescendo and a storm. The waves in StarLand are big as the rain continues to blow in and out with random cameos from the sun. It's cleansing and helps inform my dreams of the wildness that hangs out in the subconscious. A skip through time as the slide kicks in with a progressed Sun Mercury on IC (past life) and progressed Moon in preparation to cruise over the Ascendant (new life). Fascinating to watch who blows in and out and with what kinda karma in attendance. Ekhart reminds that the awakening is not in 2012 or any other arbitrary or allocated time but in the realisation that the NOW is the only time that counts. Full presence required. More hoopies keep appearing! I love those moments in class when we complete the standing forward bend in warmup by coming upright and a hoopie appears out of nowhere. Hooping magick blows me away every time. I wonder what will fill my dreams tonight. A nightflight to venus is due! Pre-dream programming required.

Colour Creates Light Love and Joy

It was a funny old Autumn day last Saturday in Sydney - the skies were grey but the mood was bright and my wardrobe was all about pink. I packed a bag in StarLand the day before in preparation for the Colour Parade with the usual time keeper tapping on one shoulder and the fashion police prodding the other. The intuitive wand said step beyond what's passed before which meant a few favourites and some random bits of yet to be tested bling. Mental note - don't leave home without safety pins ever again! They are essential items that keep such randomness together.

So as I threw on the ensemble of cosmic choice, I battled with the idea of taking Tina out for yet another ride. She had been doing the rounds lately and to be honest, as much as I love Party Tina, we had been spending WAY too much time together already and just the smell of her was making me... twitch. But the Scorpion insisted, despite my protests in favour of the turban (wrong shade of pink apparently) so I succumbed to the pressure with the knowing that Tina did indeed take me to another dimension and dabbed on a little extra essential oil.

The Scorpion and I set out on our pre-parade route - a hoop video driveby to Chatswood, parking mission in the city, stop-in @ the supermarket for safety pins and oops forgot Day 28 equipment - PriceLine to the rescue. Both of us NEEDED those safety pins and we were counting on the Colour Kids to be fashionably late like they are to install the pins into THE LOOK but as we made our way to Town Hall half an hour or more past the designated hour I saw a flash of the Colour moving and then they were gone. We powered faster up George Street with hoops and camera equipment ready to go... we were so on the mission to make it - the outfits would just have to behave! A guy with long hair and big camera ran past us shouting out the lowdown - The Parade had begun and was snaking through the QVB spraying colour and good vibes throughout. My dress needed pinning! but time had slid... into the spiral. Rok ON.

As we broke on into the parade mid QVB I was hit with an awe that doesn't come by all that often in life. The Colour Kids were in full swing and in finer form than ever before. The ability to outdo the self within a collective has been mastered over and over again by the Colour babes. The way they continue to re-invent with character-fuelled outfits, makeup, props, positive vibes and joyful presence all in the name of Colour and the Celebration of Life is such a special experience to witness and be part of. It's pure love and creativity at its best. It's like 1969 distilled and put into a bottle... with a little something special at the bottom. Put that into your Party Tina Survival Kit.

"Evolve Already" sprung out amidst it all on a placard. Casi(O) in his white wedding dress and matching balloon sashaying through the streets. Anto DONE like never before - that makeup! always a masterpiece, video camera firmly in hand. Alex Moonage with her wizard like presence waving the signature giant flower, a bouquet this time. Matt Glowman skating up a storm with a jetpack of balloons attached to his back. The Hare Krishna chinging along and chanting away - a new favourite. The whistles, the whoots, the skipping through Martin place, COLOUR driveby of Myer's makeup department (um turn around Colour Kids you are going the WRONG way!) and a lovely interlude @ the Museum of Contemporary Art for a viewing of Yayoi Kusama. That's when THAT BOY that I keep seeing popped up in all his very own Pinkness... Regrette... there are none.




It was all too much... I had to leave Yayoi for another day as the hoops were calling and my flow was ON so the spin went well into a vortex all of its own while the Colour crew lapped up the art. More awesome pix by Talen

The Scorpion and I were called back to StarLand on ethereal business - we left the Colour Kids to continue their jaunt in the Botanic Gardens feeling blessed to have been part of such beauty. The inspiration and joy that flowed that day I will remember foreva - thank you to the Colour Parade for creating such a living work of art!

The Carnival of Electric Illusions club night, hosted by the Colour Kids, is on this coming Saturday 25th April @ The Abercrombie on Broadway - check it out!

3, 5, 7 ... Take me to Hoop Heaven!

The 3 beat never fully grabbed me until I recently saw Sharna-Rose rock out Safire's 5 beat extravaganza... now it's become an obsession. Reality hit via the mutha of all mathematical epiphanies ... 5 comes after 3... there aint no way around it! Or is there? Actually now that I am applying myself to the 3 beat with the focus and intensity it deserves I'm almost enjoying it! Aaaaaaaaagh! It's SO frustrating. BUT Guru Sharna is in my mind the whole while: "let go of the ego and enjoy" yeahyeah sharnaji! that lady IS a machine there is no doubt about it. I'm putting the word out to all those in the know - I NEED HELP!!! and I NEEEED the 5 beat like yo momma needs her baby. Check it out for yourself - pure genius.



So it led me down a twins training session that included Chopper Hovers both horizontally above the head and vertically in front of the body (with added Twirly Whirly Behind) + Behind the Back Spins, Thread the Needle, Double Isolations and On the Body Split Reversals. I started downsizing hoops then upsizing again until I reached what felt like the perfect size for such twin play - 85cm (33"). Ideally I want my hoops to be small enough to rock out in the hands without feeling like my wrists are going to snap off and big enough to throw back onto the body with full mobility including split reversal range.

In Chopper Hover I am noticing it is better to keep a lighter grip on the hoops on the way down and up. Also important to keep the body centred evenly inside the hoop, grab from far left with right hand behind the back and keep the arm close to the body (elbow pointed up) as it snakes back up, Elevator style, keeping a smooth momentum and flow. You can wing this one if it's not behaving by staying with the spin - what seems most important is the flow of the lift.

Another amazing and inspiring video of the day came from Beth Lavinder - truly breathtaking in grace, flow and sharpness in those reversals.


breaks and reverses with twins on the core from Beth Lavinder on Vimeo.

The training path is calling me big time. I need it on a daily level. I dream it when I'm asleep. I can feel the portals opening as I jump into my very own unknown to discover what others experience and beyond. I want to experience life as a waking dream - surreal blissful bizarre and unique to my mind's eye. And I want to get that 3 beat in preparation for the five beat before the end of April OR ELSE!

Detox-Intox-Rox

Day 24 - 080409

Yoga this morning, meditation and juice. Oddly this is the second morning in a row of waking up without an alarm clock at 7.29am. On the dot. It's gradual but I am noticing the reduction in sleep that I need right now. Rest, less running around, less heavy food, less food, less internal baggage and no toxins makes such a difference! More water always.

So its Day 24 and I feel amazing. Let it be known that this is not the usual feeling around such a number. 4 day countdown and my whole system would usually be gearing up for pre-moon freakout!

Day 1/27 - 110409
Dreams of hooping - Working on the chopper and its landing. Astral traveling to Bend, Oregon for the North West Hoop Gathering? In the flow. Hooping hooping hooping. Dreams of cleaning houses and spaces for babies and the building of new projects. Fighting negativity vigilantly and staying away from chat boxes... they have become too limiting and frustrating in terms of genuine communication. Prefer voices on the telephone these daze, even an email or a letter seems to have more depth than the k haha brb lol omg... disintegrated language of the day. Skype on its way jetsetters! Loving quality time in StarLand both solitary and with the Scorpion and the SupaStar GemStar aka GlitterGirl last week. A shift in the vision map. Also a review of yesterday's Colour Parade to come - such fun and high vibe energy that lit up the grey streets of Sydney's city. WOW!

Exploring the Moments

They say in the world of writing that if you don't make the practice your first priority it will be your last. Well with a sideways glance and a few pupil rolls (6 to the right then 6 to the left) I gotta admit it's been one of my main frustrations and blockages in life. Why do I find it so hard to make time to write! More hours in the day would be nice, I will say, but beyond that there has got to be a more telling reason as to why I avoid one of my major passions. I see it in other areas too such as yoga, personal hoop practice, meditation, sleep and detoxing. Always too busy doing a gazillion other things - important, meaningful, fun-filled hoopy things, but still leaving me with a feeling of not having covered some fairly essential bases that contribute to the experience of maxing out on LIFE. I am guessing it's about organisation and prioritisation. Now is a significant time.

I think I've said it before, when the 8 week term is on it is ON. Living in StarLand is blissful to be sure. It has however added quite an amount of travel into my daily schedule so this is a factor to weigh up in the upcoming transition in June. Term 1 is now complete giving me four weeks to chillout, recapitulate, rest, WRITE, plan, organise, enjoy the paradise that is my home on more of a continuous rather than sporadic level and create a daily schedule that includes all these creative life essentials.

What to do first though? Self preservation. It's more of an undoing process than anything, something that transforms into being. I can feel myself withdrawing more and more into this self-created retreat and sharing it with those who care to join me. It's been quite incredible spending time and life with the hoopies who participated in last weekend's teacher training, with the Scorpion whose presence is always adorable, with GemStar who is soon leaving Australia and with myself in those brief moments that I get to be by myself. I'm not forcing the solitude - it will arrive when it's right. Having said that, I can feel that being the theme of next week. Is it possible? I'm excited! Often I feel like I need to be alone to write, to fully relax, to go deeper into my yogic practice and to sort out my life.

It's Week 2 of a 3 month detox - no social lubricants, sugar, or wheat. Sugar and wheat have been in small doses but my major vices have thus far been eliminated. Such a different feeling! My waking and dreaming minds are so much clearer. Thoughts, feelings and energy flow so much more smoothly. I have been craving this space for a LONG time. It's only now that I have found the desire strong enough for it to overwhelm unconscious patterns of outdated and collective urges. The social factor is a big one and for now I am safely AWAY in my tree house at StarLand but I know that I can't stay away forever nor do I wish to - it's the next big challenge and one that is coming up this weekend. I don't want to be rigid with myself and start creating unachievable rules BUT I do know that I don't want toxins in my body right now and for a substantial period so I need to focus on that intention and healthy craving rather than falling yet again into unconscious and peer driven habits. My new "guideline" is that if I really want it I will have it but I would like to be more fully conscious of whether I really do want it before succumbing just because everyone else is in on the "fun" train - Libra alert!

Practical to do list - Agh... the bookwork - another if it's not the first it's the last. It HAS to be done and WILL be done and brought to a point that can be delegated in an organised and systemised condition rather than dumping my mess onto someone else. I will not hand it over until it has reached this point. My instant instinct right now is to think about something more fun! Hello Mardi Gras!





More pix

More videos to come... Got a pile of files just waiting for the digital nip and tuck. A stunt double I tried in the form of DD Hoop Love but wouldn't you know it! Two versions of a humanoid like me = EVEN more bling life to do than eva! More hoops more gigs more videos more makeup more hair!! We did have fun though... more more more! Stay tuned for the Party Tina 7 minute Hoop Dance Party Workout. Not to mention the freakn amazing video Alex Chomicz shot of us down at Customs House a few weeks back. Tina come home! Party Daniel misses you... X




More AMAZING pix by Talen

Speaking of videos - instructional DVD on its way. The wheels are in motion and the drawing board is ready. What colour pens to use in the mapping I wonder...

The concept of time is transforming along with a lot of perceptions. Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth on audio has been cell shifting to say the least. Depth awareness replaces the linear paradigm which on a practical level is useful but ultimately hits walls beyond the material realm. The dimension of time in its limited human construct can be overwhelming and stressful in a chasing of tails kinda way. Hours of the day, days of the week, weeks of the year, years of our life... age, time, where we need to go and what we have to do before time runs out or the memories fade... don't be late! etc etc What about just enjoying every single millimoment to the utmost? Exploring the moments and using "time" as a framework in which to do it rather than the heavy density A-Z anchor that we are bound to.

Emotional freedom found in identifying triggers to the "pain body" breakthrough experiences and release into transformative thinking response-ability replaces reaction allowing space between thoughts and a sense of Nowness that knows there is no other time other than the present. Which right now means dream time - a personal favourite.

But before I do, I wanna wrap this entry up by coming back to where I began in honour of the circle and then zap it back out into the spiral. There are no regrets and no expectations. The moment is all that counts. I am ready to write. I am ready for yoga. I am ready to detox. I am ready to rest my mind. The exploration will go well beyond the surface. The results will be as they are. All I know is that there are very few days when I don't soak up every single cellular moment and if there are ways to expand that then I'm up for it. Practical organisation of physical, mental and emotional spaces are required. The moments are becoming more intense and less stressful in a way that only makes room for more moments because of intent, clarity, space and an awareness that this is IT - the tunnel of passion leads to a light brighter than the sun rays. And like the butterfly that hovered above on Sunday night I choose to fly freely into and amongst it knowing it supports my every move.

Unified Chakra Meditation

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Opening my heart
Into a beautiful ball of Light,
Allowing myself to expand.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand,
Encompassing my throat chakra
And my solar plexus chakra
In one unified field of Light
Within, through, and around my body.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand,
Encompassing my brow chakra
And my navel chakra
In one unified field of Light
Within, through, and around my body

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my crown chakra
And my base chakra
In one unified field of Light
Within, through, and around my body.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my Alpha chakra
(Eight inches above my head)
And my Omega chakra
(Eight inches below my spine)
In one unified field of Light
Within, through, and around my body.
I allow the Wave of Metatron
To move between these two points.
I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my eighth chakra
(above my head)
And my upper thighs
In one unified field of Light
Within, through, and around my body.
I allow my emotional body to merge
With my physical body.
I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my ninth chakra
(Above my head)
And my lower thighs
In one unified field of Light
Within, through, and around my body.
I allow my mental body to merge
With my physical body.
I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my tenth chakra
(Above my head)
And to my knees
In one unified field of Light
Within, through and around my body.
I allow my spiritual body to merge
With my physical body,
Creating the unified field. I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my eleventh chakra
(Above my head)
And my upper calves
In one unified field of Light
Within, through and around my body
I allow the Oversoul to merge
With the unified field. I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my twelfth chakra
(Above my head)
And my lower calves
In one unified field of Light
Within, through and around my body
I allow the Christ Oversoul to merge
With the unified field. I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my thirteenth chakra
(Above my head)
And my feet
In one unified field of Light
Within, through and around my body
I allow the I AM Oversoul to merge
With the unified field. I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
Allowing the Light to expand
Encompassing my fourteenth chakra
(Above my head)
And to below my feet
In one unified field of Light
Within, through and around my body
I allow the Source's Presence to move
Throughout the unified field.
I AM a unity of Light.

I breathe in Light
Through the center of my heart,
I ask that the highest level of my Spirit
Radiate forth from the center of my heart,
Filling this unified field completely.
I radiate forth throughout this day.
I AM a unity of Spirit.
I AM a unity of Light.

Declare Independence!

With Australia Day done and dusted I am back in Starland flying solo, doing the catchup thang and reflecting on what has come to pass. It's a strange life this one and often I feel too much goes unnoticed and unsaid. Call me verbose. I guess I'm just interested in having a voice and being heard. I'm not one for patriotism, don't ask me why, it simply doesn't hit my radar. So on Australia Day when we are all called upon to celebrate this 'wonderful' culture we live in, I couldn't help but feel really sad and a tad angry about the whole thing. I think of it more as "Invasion Day" - a day of mourning. It is the anniversary of the day in which a boat full of white men invaded this country, killed hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, took over their land, annihilated their culture and enforced 'civilisation' onto one and all. It makes no sense to celebrate such a day.

Cut to the masses on Bondi Beach regularly boozing it up (only slightly more cautious on Hooray Australia Day now that public drinking has been delegalised), with a countdown until the first fight breaks out, waving their Union Jack-esque flags in the air and carrying soon to be land-fill ugly as, giant green and yellow floatable flip flop / thongs courtesy of Haviannas. This is actually a 'civilisation' that people are proud of. Am I an alien not to get? As an aside, which I find particularly odd and relevant to this discussion, beyond a certain hour you can't actually enter late night Quicki Marts in Bondi, you have to Brooklyn NY style, order through bullet proof glass, have the dude rummage through the store and deliver you your order through the window while you wait outside wondering whose got the gun... I found it odd that this wasn't the case in a less prestigious part of town, i.e way out West where I was in the early hours of the morning. So if we are to use the Eastern Suburbs as a benchmark of esteemed culture - there it is ladies and gentlemen.

Given that I was performing at a sunrise festival in Parramatta, followed by another festival at Dolls Point, then back to Bondi in the afternoon... I traveled from East to West then South and back East in which time I did not see a single Aboriginal flag anywhere. Not one. Many above mentioned 'Australian' flags flying off cars, hanging out of windows, on bikinis and boxer shorts etc etc... but not a single indigenous flag was to be seen. Should I have traveled North? I'm guessing the chances were even less in that direction.

The level of ignorant insensitivity is offensive. It's like celebrating ANZAC Day or 9/11... we just wouldn't do it. So why do we seem so convinced of how right it is to be all Ozzi Ozzi oi oi! on a day that reminds us of the mindless slaughter of the ancestors of this land? Because it allows another day off work in which to get drunk?

Read this article, it says it all. Note the comment: "It's got nothing to do with Aboriginal people." The karma!

It's been interesting trawling through the online media to find differing points of view - a challenge at best! The mainstream are tied to toeing to the line. I found this article, while obviously representing the pot of (white) gold opinion that the conservatives are looking for (note the photo), to actually hold some merit. It shook me off my own high horse in any case. It's true that we need to move on and live in the now and unity beyond anything else is what we aim for in all areas of polarised life BUT, I don't think that necessarily means turning a blind eye, forgetting what has passed, and showing a lack of respect or sensitivity to the original custodians of this land and what they have experienced in the name of progress. Can we at the very least start to fly some Aboriginal flags? That's progress, in fact that's an evolution in consciousness. It would seem like the logical start, especially on Australia Day. The Federation of Intergalactic Space Babes are onto this mission... more about that soon.

Hoopaholic Mardi Gras Float 09

Dear Hoopaholics and friends,

We are putting together a Hoopaholic Mardi Gras float for the 2009 Mardi gras parade. We would love for you march with us. Please indicate if you would like to be a part of it.

Hulahooping skills not necessary. Bring hulahoops, toys, banners, noisemakers, swan around, hoop it up...

The Hoopaholics and the Colour Parade have been further workshopping the theme for our 2009 MG float entry. We've come up with "Intergalactic Colour". Basically that translates as anything SPACEY in whatever colour you like. The more colourful the better, although of course the silver still applies.

The Hoopaholics and the Colour Parade are known for their eye-catching ensembles and we trust that ya'll are up for making a statement with your fabulous costume slash hairdo slash makeup!

Think intergalactic space babe, rambunctious robot, butch borg, interplanetary messenger, androgynous android, UFO Hunter, Sigourney as Ripley, Darth Gayder, sexy mutant, a falling star, come as your favourite planet, a Klingon from Uranus?... or whatever else you can conjure from OUTERSPACE...

Check out the pix for more inspiration...

CAN'T WAIT to see what you come up with! x

The parade is 7th March 2009.

Love from,
The Hoopaholics and the Colour Parade

2009 - Organise Systemise Realise

Again its been another hardcore quarter year. At the moment life is divided into four x eight week teaching terms with four week breaks in between and a little longer over the Summer break... which is now - yay! Stop to catch breath, chillax, recap and move forward. The past six months have been even more jampacked given that during break time I have been traveling - to the Australian desert mid year then over to California for Hoop Camp and Harbin Hoop Jam. A thousand thankyous to Tiger Rowly for editing this hot video of Harbin.



The current break has been all about taking time out, moving to the South Coast of New South Wales and really taking stock of what has happened, is happening and will happen in the coming year. The breath has been long as the fast paced Year of the Rat comes to a close making way for the Ox - slow and steady. I dedicate 2009 to more deep, long breaths, taking organisation to a new level and putting systems into place to realise the ongoing success and longevity of what feels like a mammoth life project - hoop evolution... hoopmorphosis!



Feels good to ignite the jamspace here - Joy and I got it going on right after XMas and last weekend GemStar, Phoebe Linguini, TamStar and Wendy blew in for some hoop time. It works and has the potential to rock right out. Starborough energy is clear and ready for manifestation. From the outset it has been quite effortless to create here. Hoop time is a joy and the main cushion room craves the whirl. One of my reasons for moving out of Sydney was to make more space to write and expand consciously and creatively. But there is no rush as this is the space for flow and recently its been downtime which means simply making space to see what happens and rest. Life has been filled with a lot of lovely guests, beautiful food, divine ocean swims, yoga, reading, drawing, hooping and the ever important visioning of what next!



Now it's time to get back onnit! I will admit this is a challenge with an ocean staring me in the face and an office set up on an outside deck amidst the trees and birds and bees... but what's life without a few challenges right. With Mardi Gras around the corner I am devoting some time to creating the show for the Club Kooky Mardi Gras Extravaganza, working on the spaceship for the parade and designing costumes. A Hoopaholic landing is in order so the Intergalactic Space Babe blinglicious thinking cap is well on.



The parade will include the Colour Parade collective and will be loosely themed Intergalactic Colour as will be sketched out in my next post. This is the first year that the Hoopaholics have had their very own float so look out Mardi Gras! That Taylor's Square hot spot might never be the same again... we intend to bust some fairly serious moves.

The vision map includes a lot this year - expanding the business through replication and technology so lots of learning resources in the form of E-Books, Audio Books, Videos... story books. Travel - a mandatory life activity... of the body and mind. More rest than last year - Rat on Rat WOAH Bessy! More Yoga, raw food, vegie garden akshun, fasting, hoop retreats, hoop jams, desert missions, meditation, LURV... and more and more dancing. Performance wise - I'm seeing a blossoming, a padding out, a shape shifting type morph if you will of the repertoire thus far. As ever its gonna be FULL ON and MEGA BLING in the form of light, glitter, shimmer, costume hair makeup extravaganzas and routines that elaborate on the story of BunnyHoopStar and the Hoopaholics - the Intergalactic Space Babe Journey. The Hulian Mission commands full presence.



Deanne arrives in a few weeks so the Wonder Twin Powers will activate... more on that soon!

Many happy hoopy blessings to one and all for 2009. May your dreams be activated and realised with clarity, courage and a style that is distinctly YOU!